Brockley - Notable Residents

Notable Residents

  • Athlete (band) (formed 1999) lead singer Joel Pott, keyboard player Tim Wanstall and bassist Carey Willetts live in Brockley. The band used to rehearse at the Bear Cafe in Deptford High St
  • Rosie Barnes OBE, MP for Greenwich (1987–1992), Chief Executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust (1996–2010), Patron of Child Health International (2011- ) lives on Tressillian Road.
  • Steve Bolton guitarist with Atomic Rooster, Paul Young and The Who among others lived on Geoffrey Road in the 1980s.
  • Nick Brookes, singer-songwriter, lives on Tressillian Road.
  • Alan Brownjohn, the poet and novelist, attended Brockley County School.
  • Kate Bush, the singer, lived on Wickham Road.
  • John Cale (Musician) with the Velvet Underground was a student at Goldsmiths College and lived on Wickham Rd in the student halls of residence.
  • Emily Davison, suffragette, born Blackheath 1872, died at the Epsom Derby in 1913 after stepping in front of the King's horse. Lived for a time in Brockley.
  • Alfred Drury, sculptor, lived in Tressillian Road and taught at Goldsmith's College
  • Paul Drury, artist, born Tressillian Rd 1903. Taught Goldsmiths College of Art.
  • Kerry Ellis, singer and West End stage actress, lives in Brockley, with her boyfriend.
  • Gabrielle, the singer, lived in Brockley.
  • John Galliano, the fashion designer, grew up in Brockley and visits with his design team
  • David Haig, the actor and writer, resides in Brockley.
  • Matt Hales, singer, songwriter of Aqualung.
  • Bernard Hill, actor, lived in Wickam Gardens in the 1980s
  • Darren Johnson, Green Party politician.
  • David Jones, modernist poet and artist, was born in Brockley in 1895 and often stayed at his parents' house in Howson Road until his mother's death in 1936. Some of his drawings depict the house and garden. His most famous poem is called In Parenthesis. He attended Camberwell School of Art in 1909.
  • Brian Keaney, the children's author, lives in Brockley
  • Alan King, massurreal artist, was born in 27 Manor Avenue, Brockley in 1952 and attended Lucas Vale school before moving to Deptford after contracting and surviving polio in 1955.
  • Anita Klein, artist and printmaker has lived in Brockley for many years.
  • Lily Langtry, the actress and mistress of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, lived at 42, Wickham Road
  • Marie Lloyd, the music hall singer, lived at 196 Wickham Terrace in 1891-2.
  • David Lodge grew up in Brockley and writes about the area in his novels The Picturegoers and Therapy
  • The comedian Spike Milligan (1918–2002), lived at 50 Riseldine Road (which is on the cusp of Crofton Park and Honor Oak) after coming to England from India in the 1930s. (This is revealed in his War Memoirs (Hitler, my part in his downfall) et al.)
  • Nick Nicely, musician. His 1982 cult psychedelic classic Hilly Fields was inspired by the park of the same name.
  • Mica Paris, singer.
  • Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891), Irish Nationalist Politician, with Katherine O'Shea at 112 Tressillian Road
  • Ed Petrie, TV presenter and stand-up comedian.
  • Sybil Phoenix, former Mayoress of Lewisham and first black woman to receive the M.B.E., to become a Freeman of the City of London and Freeman of the Borough of Lewisham, local resident.
  • Harry Price, psychic and paranormal researcher, famed for his work on the Borley Rectory hauntings, lodged at 22, Harefield Road. He went to school at Waller Road and Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College.
  • David Rocastle, professional footballer, playing midfield for Arsenal and England.
  • Montague Summers, eccentric writer, taught at Brockley County School
  • Chris Tarrant, TV presenter, taught at a school in Brockley in the late 60s/early 70s and for some time lived in his car near the school. * Paul Theroux, his 1976 novel The Family Arsenal is set in Cliff Terrace off St Johns Vale.
  • Bobby Valentino, singer, songwriter, musician and actor, has lived in Brockley for the past 30 years. He is best known as the co-writer and violinist of the Bluebells hit single "Young at Heart".
  • Baron Warner, Norman Warner, Baron Warner of Brockley, Minister of State for Reform
  • Edgar Wallace, author and original screenwriter of King Kong, lived at 6 Tresillian Crescent, Brockley, between 1900 and 1932. His fictional detective character J G Reeder lived in Brockley Road. His book "The Duke in the Suburbs" is also based in Brockley.
  • Sir Willard White (C.B.E), famous opera singer, born Jamaica 1946, once lived in Wickham Gardens and later Montague Avenue, Brockley.
  • Henry Williamson, writer and author of Tarka the Otter, was born in 1895 at 66 Braxfield Rd and lived at 21 Eastern Road, Brockley, during his childhood in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He describes turn of the century Brockley in great detail in his semi-autobiographical novels, The Dark Lantern and Donkey Boy.
  • Denny Wright, jazz guitarist, grew up in Brockley before the second world war and served with the Auxiliary Fire Service there.
  • Ian Wright, professional footballer, playing striker for Arsenal and England. Latterly sports pundit and TV presenter
  • Bradley Wright-Phillips, professional footballer for Charlton Athletic F.C.
  • Shaun Wright-Phillips, the footballer, grew up in Brockley and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College.
  • Shaun Prendergast, Actor and Writer lives in Brockley
  • The June Brides, proto UK indie pop group including singer Phil Wilson shared a house in Chudleigh Road. Viola player Frank Sweeney still lives not far from there.

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